S.A. audience huge for televised inauguration

Wow! Nearly one-third of San Antonio households watched President Obama’s Inauguration on TV.

According to Nielsen, the S.A. rating for Tuesday’s historic TV event — 28.9 (the percentage of TV households here tuned in) — was higher than that of much-bigger markets, including — are you sitting down? — Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston.

As for the nation, Nielsen reports that nearly 38 million Americans watched the full day of inaugural events — essentially, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.. — from their homes. This was the most viewed inauguration since Ronald Reagan’s in 1981, which set a record at 41.8 million viewers.

ABC was the preferred network by most Americans. The network reports the combined total viewership of its inaugural coverage surpassed 47 million people. Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and the rest must be celebrating.

ABC’s telecast of “The Neighborhood Ball” which had the president and First Lady Michelle boogeying and foxtrotting to superstars such as Beyoncé, Sting, Mariah Carey and Stevie Wonder, also was a winner in San Antonio. It outscored everything on CBS and NBC and even beat — shocker! — “American Idol” on Fox.

The only program that scored higher here in prime-time: The Spurs game that was telecast on KMYS. No surprises there.